Adjusting text in message in light of recipient&#39;s interests and/or personality traits to sustain recipient&#39;s interest in message

ABSTRACT

A method, system and computer program product for adjusting text in a message to sustain the recipient&#39;s interest in the message. Upon identifying the recipients to receive a message, information, including interests and/or personality traits, regarding the identified recipients is retrieved. Upon obtaining the recipient&#39;s interests and/or personality traits, a linguistic engine is utilized to generate words and phrases (e.g., speed, parking, license, toll) associated with the recipient&#39;s interest and/or personality trait (e.g., interest in cars). The words and ordering of the words in the message are then changed to include words and phrases associated with the interest and/or personality trait of the recipient. In this manner, the author is able to compose a message that sustains the recipient&#39;s interest in the message by modifying the message to include language directed to the recipient&#39;s interests (e.g., traveling, collecting baseball cards) and/or personality traits (e.g., hates loud music).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to communications, and moreparticularly to adjusting the text in a message in light of therecipient's interests and/or personality traits to sustain therecipient's interest in the message.

BACKGROUND

There are various forms of communication between users of a computingdevice, such as via electronic mail (“e-mail”), social media (e.g.,social networking sites), text messaging, etc. Messages, includingdocuments (e.g., word processing document), that are composed anddistributed to recipients in such a manner may include text that losesthe interest of the recipient in reading the message. For example, therecipient may receive a message regarding the current policies andguidelines of the recipient's employer. Such a message may include textthat loses the interest of the recipient thereby preventing therecipient from reading the entirety of the message and not acquiring theneeded information.

Furthermore, with ever increasing amounts of messages to review, it isbecoming more important to compose messages that maintain the interestof the recipient since the recipient has less time to read each message.The problem with composing messages to maintain the interest of arecipient may be even more difficult in cases where the message is beingsent to disparate recipients in a mass mailing, where each recipient maylose interest in reading the message in different ways.

Currently, there is not a means for assisting the author in composing amessage to sustain the recipient's interest in the message.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for adjusting textin a message to sustain recipient's interest in the message comprisesreceiving a message for one or more recipients. The method furthercomprises identifying the one or more recipients to receive the message.Furthermore, the method comprises retrieving information regarding theidentified one or more recipients, where the information comprisesinterests and/or personality traits of the identified one or morerecipients. Additionally, the method comprises utilizing a linguisticengine to generate words and phrases associated with an interest and/orpersonality trait of a first recipient of the identified one or morerecipients. In addition, the method comprises utilizing, by a processor,natural language processing to change words and ordering of words in themessage to include words and phrases associated with the interest and/orpersonality trait of the first recipient of the identified one or morerecipients.

Other forms of the embodiment of the method described above are in asystem and in a computer program product.

The foregoing has outlined rather generally the features and technicaladvantages of one or more embodiments of the present invention in orderthat the detailed description of the present invention that follows maybe better understood. Additional features and advantages of the presentinvention will be described hereinafter which may form the subject ofthe claims of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained when thefollowing detailed description is considered in conjunction with thefollowing drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a communication system configured in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a hardware configuration of a message analyzer inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A-3B are a flowchart of a method for assisting the author incomposing a message to sustain the recipient's interest in the messagein accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a message composed by an author prior to beingmodified to sustain the recipient's interest in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates the message of FIG. 4 being modified by includinglanguage directed to the recipient's interests and/or personality traitsto sustain the recipient's interest in the message in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 illustrates generating a score based on the proximity of the wordor phrase associated with an interest and/or personality trait of therecipient to a positive or negative term in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention comprises a method, system and computer programproduct for adjusting text in a message to sustain the recipient'sinterest in the message. In one embodiment of the present invention, therecipients to receive a message are identified. A “message,” as usedherein, refers to any type of communication between computers,including, but not limited, e-mail, instant messages, text messages,documents (e.g., word processing documents), posts to social mediawebsites, such as Facebook®, forums, wikis, etc. Upon identifying therecipients, information, including interests and/or personality traits,regarding the identified recipients is retrieved. For example, interestsand/or personality traits may be obtained by focusing on keywords, suchas “travel,” “sports,” “dislike,” when analyzing the recipient's companyprofile page and/or the recipient's home page on social media websites(e.g., LinkedIn®, Facebook®) using natural language processing. Uponobtaining the recipient's interests and/or personality traits, alinguistic engine is utilized to generate words and phrases associatedwith the recipient's interests and/or personality traits. For example,if the recipient has an interest in cars, then words, such as speed,limit, sign, license, toll and parking may be generated to be possiblyused in the message to sustain the recipient's interest in the message.The words and ordering of the words in the message are then changed toinclude words and phrases associated with the interest and/orpersonality trait of the recipient by utilizing natural languageprocessing. In this manner, the author is able to compose a message thatsustains the recipient's interest in the message by modifying themessage (e.g., changing the words and ordering of the words) to includelanguage directed to the recipient's interests (e.g., traveling,collecting baseball cards, cars) and/or personality traits (e.g., hatesloud music).

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, itwill be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present inventionmay be practiced without such specific details. In other instances,well-known circuits have been shown in block diagram form in order notto obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For the mostpart, details considering timing considerations and the like have beenomitted inasmuch as such details are not necessary to obtain a completeunderstanding of the present invention and are within the skills ofpersons of ordinary skill in the relevant art.

Referring now to the Figures in detail, FIG. 1 illustrates acommunication system 100 for practicing the principles of the presentinvention in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.Communication system 100 includes client devices 101A-101C (identifiedas “Client Device A,” “Client Device B,” and “Client Device C,”respectively, in FIG. 1) connected to a server 102 via a network 103.Client devices 101A-101C may collectively or individually be referred toas client devices 101 or client device 101, respectively. Client device101 may be any type of computing device (e.g., portable computing unit,Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), smartphone, laptop computer, mobilephone, navigation device, game console, desktop computer system,workstation, Internet appliance and the like) configured with thecapability of connecting to network 103 and consequently communicatingwith other client devices 101 and server 102. Client device 101 may beconfigured to send and receive text-based messages in real-time duringan instant messaging session. Any user of client device 101 may be thecreator or initiator of an instant message (message in instantmessaging) and any user of client device 101 may be a recipient of aninstant message. Furthermore, any user of client device 101 may be ableto create, receive and send e-mails. Additionally, any user of clientdevice 101 may be able to send and receive text messages, such as ShortMessage Services (SMS) messages. Furthermore, any user of client device101 may be able to send documents (e.g., word processing documents),such as those stored in database 104 connected to network 103, to otherclient devices 101. The term “messages,” as used herein, encompasseseach of these types of messages, including documents (e.g., wordprocessing documents) as well as posts to social media websites, such asFacebook®, forums, wikis, etc.

Network 103 may be, for example, a local area network, a wide areanetwork, a wireless wide area network, a circuit-switched telephonenetwork, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network,Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) network, a WiFi network, an IEEE802.11 standards network, various combinations thereof, etc. Othernetworks, whose descriptions are omitted here for brevity, may also beused in conjunction with system 100 of FIG. 1 without departing from thescope of the present invention.

In communication system 100, client devices 101A-101C include a softwareagent, referred to herein as an Instant Messaging (IM) client 105A-105C,respectively. Instant messaging clients 105A-105C may collectively orindividually be referred to as instant messaging clients 105 or instantmessaging client 105, respectively. Furthermore, server 102 includes asoftware agent, referred to herein as the Instant Messaging (IM) server106. IM client 105 provides the functionality to send and receiveinstant messages. As messages are received, IM client 105 presents themessages to the user in a dialog window (or IM window). Furthermore, IMclient 105 provides the functionality for client device 101 to connectto the IM server 106 which provides the functionality of distributingthe instant messages to the IM clients 105 associated with each of thesharing users.

Client devices 101A-101C may further include a software agent, referredto herein as an e-mail client agent 107A-107C, respectively. E-mailclient agents 107A-107C may collectively or individually be referred toas e-mail client agents 107 or e-mail client agent 107, respectively.Furthermore, server 102 may include a software agent, referred to hereinas the e-mail server agent 108. E-mail client agent 107 enables the userof client device 101 to create, send and receive e-mails. E-mail serveragent 108 is configured to receive e-mail messages from client devices101 and distribute the received e-mail messages among the one or moreclient devices 101.

While the preceding discusses each client device 101 as including an IMclient 105 and an e-mail client agent 107, each client device 101 maynot necessarily include each of these software agents. For example, someclient devices 101 may only include an IM client 105; whereas, otherclient devices 101 may only include an e-mail client agent 107. In otherwords, each client device 101 may be able to perform some or all of thefunctions discussed herein, such as sending/receiving e-mails,sending/receiving instant messages, sending/receiving text messages,etc. Furthermore, while the preceding discusses a single server 102including the software agents, such as IM server 106 and e-mail serveragent 108, multiple servers may be used to implement these services.Furthermore, each server 102 may not necessarily be configured toinclude all of these software agents, but only a subset of thesesoftware agents. For example, one particular server 102 may only includeIM server 106; whereas, another particular server 102 may only includee-mail server agent 108.

System 100 further includes a Short Message Service (SMC) center 109configured to relay, store and forward text messages, such as SMSmessages, among client devices 101 through network 103.

System 100 further includes a social network server 110, which may be aweb server configured to offer a social networking and/or microbloggingservice, enabling users of client devices 101 to send and read otherusers' posts. “Posts,” as used herein, include any one or more of thefollowing: text (e.g., comments, sub-comments and replies), audio, videoimages, etc. Social network server 110 is connected to network 103 bywire or wirelessly. While FIG. 1 illustrates a single social networkserver 110, it is noted for clarity that multiple servers may be used toimplement the social networking and/or microblogging service.

System 100 further includes a component, referred to herein as the“message analyzer” 111, connected to network 103 by wire or wirelessly.Message analyzer 111 is configured to assist authors in composingmessages that will sustain the interest of the recipients byincorporating language directed to the recipient's interests and/orpersonality traits as discussed further below in connection with FIGS.3A-3B and 4-6. In one embodiment, the recipient's interests and/orpersonality traits may be stored in a database, such as database 104.While the foregoing description discusses database 104 storingdocuments, such as word processing documents, database 104, including anadditional separate database 104, may be configured to store therecipient's interests and/or personality traits. Database 104, includingan additional separate database 104, may further be configured to storewords and/or phrases associated with interests and/or personalitytraits. A description of the hardware configuration of message analyzer111 is provided below in connection with FIG. 2.

System 100 is not to be limited in scope to any one particular networkarchitecture. System 100 may include any number of client devices 101,servers 102, networks 103, databases 104, SMS centers 109, socialnetwork servers 110 and message analyzers 111.

Referring now to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 illustrates a hardware configuration ofmessage analyzer 111 (FIG. 1) which is representative of a hardwareenvironment for practicing the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2,message analyzer 111 has a processor 201 coupled to various othercomponents by system bus 202. An operating system 203 runs on processor201 and provides control and coordinates the functions of the variouscomponents of FIG. 2. An application 204 in accordance with theprinciples of the present invention runs in conjunction with operatingsystem 203 and provides calls to operating system 203 where the callsimplement the various functions or services to be performed byapplication 204. Application 204 may include, for example, a program forassisting authors in composing messages that will sustain the interestof the recipients as discussed further below in association with FIGS.3A-3B and 4-6.

Referring again to FIG. 2, read-only memory (“ROM”) 205 is coupled tosystem bus 202 and includes a basic input/output system (“BIOS”) thatcontrols certain basic functions of message analyzer 111. Random accessmemory (“RAM”) 206 and disk adapter 207 are also coupled to system bus202. It should be noted that software components including operatingsystem 203 and application 204 may be loaded into RAM 206, which may bemessage analyzer's 111 main memory for execution. Disk adapter 207 maybe an integrated drive electronics (“IDE”) adapter that communicateswith a disk unit 208, e.g., disk drive. It is noted that the program forassisting authors in composing messages that will sustain the interestof the recipients, as discussed further below in association with FIGS.3A-3B and 4-6, may reside in disk unit 208 or in application 204.

Message analyzer 111 may further include a communications adapter 209coupled to bus 202. Communications adapter 209 interconnects bus 202with an outside network (network 103 of FIG. 1) thereby enabling messageanalyzer 111 to communicate with client devices 101.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

As stated in the Background section, there are various forms ofcommunication between users of a computing device, such as viaelectronic mail (“e-mail”), social media (e.g., social networkingsites), text messaging, etc. Messages, including documents (e.g., wordprocessing document), that are composed and distributed to recipients insuch a manner may include text that loses the interest of the recipientin reading the message. For example, the recipient may receive a messageregarding the current policies and guidelines of the recipient'semployer. Such a message may include text that loses the interest of therecipient thereby preventing the recipient from reading the entirety ofthe message and not acquiring the needed information. Furthermore, withever increasing amounts of messages to review, it is becoming moreimportant to compose messages that maintain the interest of therecipient since the recipient has less time to read each message. Theproblem with composing messages to maintain the interest of a recipientmay be even more difficult in cases where the message is being sent todisparate recipients in a mass mailing, where each recipient may loseinterest in reading the message in different ways. Currently, there isnot a means for assisting the author in composing a message to sustainthe recipient's interest in the message.

The principles of the present invention provide a means for allowing theauthor to compose a message that sustains the recipient's interest inthe message by modifying the message (e.g., changing the words andordering of the words) to include language directed to the recipient'sinterests (e.g., traveling, collecting baseball cards, cars) and/orpersonality traits (e.g., hates loud music) as discussed further belowin connection with FIGS. 3A-3B and 4-6. FIGS. 3A-3B are a flowchart of amethod for assisting the author in composing a message to sustain therecipient's interest in the message. FIG. 4 illustrates a messagecomposed by an author prior to being modified to sustain the recipient'sinterest. FIG. 5 illustrates the message of FIG. 4 being modified byincluding language directed to the recipient's interests and/orpersonality traits to sustain the recipient's interest in the message.FIG. 6 illustrates generating a score based on the proximity of the wordor phrase associated with an interest and/or personality trait of therecipient to a positive or negative term.

As stated above, FIGS. 3A-3B are a flowchart of a method 300 forassisting the author in composing a message to sustain the recipient'sinterest in the message in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

Referring to FIG. 3A, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2, in step 301,message analyzer 111 receives a message for one or more recipients(e.g., user of client device 101B, user of client device 101C).“Message,” as used herein, refers to any type of communication betweencomputers, including, but not limited, e-mail, instant messages, textmessages, documents (e.g., word processing documents), posts to socialmedia websites, such as Facebook®, forums, wikis, etc.

In step 302, message analyzer 111 identifies the recipients to receivethe message. In one embodiment, message analyzer 111 determines therecipients to receive the message by identifying the recipientsfollowing the “TO:” field or keywords (e.g., “Hi!”) in the message. Inanother embodiment, the author composing the message informs messageanalyzer 111 who are the recipients to receive the composed message.

In step 303, message analyzer 111 retrieves information, includinginterests and/or personality traits, regarding the identifiedrecipients. In one embodiment, interests and/or personality traits areobtained from the recipient's company profile pages using naturallanguage processing. In another embodiment, interests and/or personalitytraits are obtained from social media websites, such as LinkedIn® andFacebook®, using natural language processing. For example, messageanalyzer 111 may identify interests and/or personality traits byfocusing on keywords, such as “travel,” “sports,” “dislike,” whenanalyzing the recipient's company profile page and/or the recipient'shome page on social media websites (e.g., LinkedIn®, Facebook®) usingnatural language processing. Such interests and/or personality traitsthat are discovered may be stored in a database (e.g., database 104)which may be retrieved by message analyzer 111. While the foregoingdescription discusses obtaining the recipient's interests and/orpersonality traits from the sources of the recipient's company profilepages and the recipient's home page on social media websites, theprinciples of the present invention are to include other public sourceswhere information regarding the recipient's interests and/or personalitytraits may be obtained.

As discussed below in connection with steps 304-311, upon obtaining therecipient's interests and/or personality traits, message analyzer 111will modify the message to include language directed to the recipient'sinterest and/or personality trait so as to sustain the recipient'sinterest in reading the message. The following discussion of steps304-311 of method 300 occurs for each recipient identified in step 302.

In step 304, message analyzer 111 utilizes a linguistic engine togenerate words and phrases associated with the recipient's interestand/or personality trait. For example, if the recipient has an interestin cars, then words, such as speed, limit, sign, license, toll andparking may be generated to be possibly used in the message to sustainthe recipient's interest in the message. In one embodiment, thelinguistic engine utilizes a database (e.g., database 104) of wordsand/or phrases associated with interests and/or personality traits.

In step 305, message analyzer 111 utilizes natural language processingto change words and ordering of words in the message to include wordsand phrases associated with an interest and/or personality trait of therecipient. Modification of the message by changing words and ordering ofwords may involve one of the following: adjusting the paragraphlayouts/margins, scaling or moving the paragraphs/sentences, replacingparts of speech (e.g., noun, verb, adjective, adverb) with a synonymwhich has a more positive/negative tone, etc. The goal of themodification to the message is to capture the recipient's interest inreading the message by incorporating language directed to therecipient's interests and/or personality traits as illustrated in FIGS.4 and 5.

FIG. 4 illustrates a message 400 composed by an author (e.g., user ofclient device 101A) prior to being modified to sustain the recipient'sinterest in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, message 400 is a message directed to user B (e.g.,user of client device 101B) and user C (e.g., user of client device101C) regarding the policy of maintaining a clean desk. Such a messagemay include language to cause these recipients to lose interest inreading the message. As discussed above, message analyzer 111 identifiesthe recipients, such as by identifying the recipients following the useof the keyword “Hi” in the message. Message analyzer 111 then retrievesthe interests and/or personality traits for these recipients. Forexample, suppose that user C has an interest in cars. As a result,message analyzer 111 generates words and phrases associated with such aninterest (e.g., speed, limit, sign, license, toll and parking) andmodifies the message, such as by changing the words and ordering of thewords, to include words and phrases associated with such an interest asillustrated in FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 illustrates modifying message 400 of FIG. 4 (modified message500) to be sent to user C by including language directed to user C'sinterests and/or personality traits (e.g., interest in cars) to sustainuser C's interest in the message in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 5 illustrates presenting modified message 500 ina proximity map format.

Referring to FIG. 5, modified message 500 to be sent to user C nowincludes language directed to user C's interest in cars as illustratedwith the highlighted terms (shown in bold and italicized) pertaining tocars, such as “driving,” “speedily,” “licensed,” “park,” “sign,”“accelerates,” and “limit.” Also, as illustrated in FIG. 5, these “eyecatching words” are all in a line so that the reader is more likely tojump from one line to the next thereby maintaining interest in the wholemessage as illustrated by arrow 501. Such a depiction is referred toherein as a “proximity map format.” Message analyzer 111 may alsodisplay the changes to the message in a heat map format wherenegative/positive connotations from the recommended changed words andphrases can be illustrated.

Returning to FIG. 3A, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2 and 4-5, in step306, message analyzer 111 evaluates the modified message (message ofstep 305) by generating a score based on the proximity of the words andphrases associated with the interest and/or personality trait of therecipient to negative or positive words as illustrated in FIG. 6. FIG. 6illustrates generating a score based on the proximity of the word orphrase associated with an interest and/or personality trait of therecipient to a positive or negative term in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, in the phrase “it will be probably be better topark it in the bin” in modified message 500 of FIG. 5, the term “park”601 associated with an interest (e.g., cars) of the recipient (e.g.,user C) is assigned a score of +0.2 based on its proximity to thepositive term “better” 602. For example, in one embodiment, a positiveword 1 cm in any direction from a word/phrase associated with arecipient's interest and/or personality trait is assigned a +1 score. Anegative word 1 cm from a word/phrase associated with a recipient'sinterest and/or personality trait is assigned a −1 score. As thedistance change so does the score as illustrated in FIG. 6. The closerthe positive/negative word to the word/phrase associated with arecipient's interest and/or personality trait, the greater/lesser thevalue of the score, respectively.

This technique as illustrated in FIG. 6 is performed for every word andphrase associated with the recipient's interest and/or personality traitin modified message 500 and a total score is calculated in step 306.

Returning to FIG. 3A, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2 and 4-6, in step307, a determination is made by message analyzer 111 as to whether thescore (the total score calculated) can be improved.

If the score can be improved, then message analyzer 111 utilizes naturallanguage processing to further change the words and ordering of words inthe message to include different words and phrases associated with aninterest and/or personality trait of the recipient in step 305.

If, however, the score cannot be improved, then, in step 308, messageanalyzer 111 displays the modified message (e.g., modified message 500)with words and phrases associated with the interest and/or personalitytrait of the recipient to the user (author of message) in a proximitymap (as shown in FIG. 5) or heat map format to highlight the recommendedchanges. In one embodiment, the user is provided the opportunity toaccept/reject these recommended changes as well as to modify the text ofthe modified message as discussed below.

Referring now to FIG. 3B, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2 and 4-6, in step309, a determination is made by message analyzer 111 as to whether theproposed message (e.g., modified message 500) is modified by the user(author of message).

If the proposed message (e.g., modified message 500) is not modified bythe user, then, in step 310, message analyzer 111 sends the messagewithout modifications to the recipient.

If, however, the proposed message (e.g., modified message 500) wasmodified by the user (e.g., rejecting some of the recommended changes,editing the text), then, in step 311, message analyzer 111 sends themessage with the user's modifications to the recipient.

By implementing the principles of the present invention as discussedabove, the author is able to compose a message that sustains therecipient's interest in the message by modifying the message (e.g.,changing the words and ordering of the words) to include languagedirected to the recipient's interests (e.g., traveling, collectingbaseball cards, cars) and/or personality traits (e.g., hates loudmusic).

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

1. A method for adjusting text in a message to sustain recipient's interest in the message, the method comprising: receiving a message for one or more recipients; identifying said one or more recipients to receive said message; retrieving information regarding said identified one or more recipients, wherein said information comprises interests and/or personality traits of said identified one or more recipients; utilizing a linguistic engine to generate words and phrases associated with an interest and/or personality trait of a first recipient of said identified one or more recipients; and utilizing, by a processor, natural language processing to change words and ordering of words in said message to include words and phrases associated with said interest and/or personality trait of said first recipient of said identified one or more recipients.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising: evaluating said message by generating a score based on proximity of said words and phrases associated with said interest and/or personality trait of said first recipient to negative and positive words.
 3. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising: utilizing said natural language processing to further change words and ordering of words in said message to include different words and phrases associated with said interest and/or personality trait of said first recipient.
 4. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising: sending said message modified with said words and phrases associated with said interest and/or personality trait of said first recipient to said first recipient.
 5. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising: displaying said message modified with said words and phrases associated with said interest and/or personality trait of said first recipient to highlight recommend changes.
 6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein said message is displayed in a proximity map or heat map format.
 7. The method as recited in claim 5 further comprising: sending said message which has been modified further by an author of said message to said first recipient. 